"Don't try to pet the half-ton lion as if it's your cousin's house cat" really feels like one of those rules that can just go unsaid, but apparently that's not so. Case in point: Welsh Rugby Union hooker Scott Baldwin, who, during a visit to a South African game park decided to reach through a gate (!) to give an adult lion (!) a pat on its giant head (!). In an unforeseeable twist, the lion bit him.
Luckily Baldwin still has a hand, but that hand now has stitches in it, which caused him to miss his team, the Ospreys, face up against South Africa's Cheetahs. (The Cheetahs won.) Even Baldwin's own coach, Steve Tandy, couldn't summon a defense for the hooker's utterly idiotic move.
There was an incident with a lion, but in fairness it was nothing to do with the lion. He did bite Scott but when you put your hand in a fence where there is a lion then expect to get bit. And he's had plenty of warning, so it's pretty stupid on Scott's behalf and he's pretty lucky. But again, it's nothing to do with where we were, it was a good environment, we'd been told how far back to stand. But I don't know what kind of wildlife program Scott's been watching where you can pat a lion on the head as if it's a kitten.
